Odd Year Voting Is Classic Greek Democracy

Odd Year Voting is Classic Greek Democracy

By Robert Korczynski

In ancient Sparta and Athens, democracy only included land-owning male veterans that were citizens of the state, and never included people passing by or temporarily living there, and no women, and no slaves. The amount of the population that fit this criteria was about 13%, and they were the only ones that were allowed to vote.

Up until 1820 in the United States and everywhere on the planet, the definition of democracy had always been some version of Greek democracy. America was set up with classic Greek democracy, but in 1820 three American states extended voting rights to poor white men, participating in the slippery slope into universal suffrage on the planet started by the French and the Haitians, but without killing the ruling class. Over the next 100 years, the suffragist movement finally achieved universal suffrage in the United States, giving women the right to vote in 1920.

Yet, 12 years before women got the right to vote in the United States, in 1908 the Michigan legislature established odd-year voting for local mayoral and city council races. Odd-year voting blatantly functions as a tool to keep out the riffraff like renters, poor people, and other low participation voters, using odd years to produce abnormally low voter participation between 13% and 26%, when midterm elections draw about 45% and presidential elections between 60% and 75%, meaning odd year elections still function as original Greek democracy, while midterm and presidential elections function as universal suffrage.

Around 74% of Michiganders own their own home, meaning the pool of available voters is heavily weighted toward home owning citizens from the start. Furthermore, national tracking shows that military veterans consistently maintain a significantly higher voter turnout rate than non-veterans across all election types, producing a mirror of the original Greek form of democracy where only land-owning veterans could vote.

The Voting Rights Act and US courts have never struck down odd-year voting because the law only prohibits explicit, discriminatory practices like literacy tests, poll taxes, or racial gerrymandering. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that states and municipalities have wide constitutional latitude under Article I, Section 4 to set the Times, Places, and Manner of holding elections. Because an odd-year November ballot is technically open to every single registered adult on equal terms, it passes all modern constitutional tests.

The courts do not consider voter fatigue or a low turnout year to be a legal violation. If people choose not to show up because there isn't a high-profile presidential race on television, the law views that as a personal choice, completely shielding the system from federal intervention because you just have the right to vote.

Established in 1919, the League of Women Voters and their chapter in Michigan has spent over a century fighting for women's suffrage and greater voter participation. Their ongoing battle is rooted in the belief that true universal suffrage requires maximizing the number of people who show up, regardless of who they actually elect. For decades, they have opposed odd-year calendars because they intentionally drag participation rates down, keeping working-class women and local renters completely unrepresented.

In 2003, the Michigan state government revisited the exact issue of election timing under the framework of MCL 168.642, but rather than consolidating local races onto high-turnout even-year ballots to foster inclusive democracy, the state decided to maintain the odd-year election layout, simply mandating that municipalities hold those low-participation off-cycle elections specifically in November. And then they updated it in 2012 to say that all school board and any other municipal elections also had to be held at the same time in an odd year in November.

Because partisan politics aren't on the table, the odd-year cycle successfully preserves a restricted stakeholder driven form of democracy that mirrors ancient Greece right in the middle of the 21st century. The League of Women Voters actively campaigns to switch college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing to even years to include women and students, specifically because their data shows that it would include more women voters.

The odd-year format successfully allows the property owners who actually fund the municipal bonds and the school levies to retain control over the local checkbook and even democracy in their town. It proves that while we do have universal suffrage in the United States, people don't actually care at all about democracy, and since politics and political parties can't be cited in local elections, it turns out that only about 13% to 26% of the United States actually cares about democracy, and the rest only know how to vote for a Democrat or a Republican.

References

• Mackinac Center for Public Policy: Analysis on Voter Turnout and Local Tax Voting Schedule Dynamics
• League of Women Voters of Michigan: Women's Suffrage History and Push to Move Municipal Elections to Even-Year Cycles
• Michigan Legislature: CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN OF 1908 - Townships Election Timing
• Michigan Legislature: Michigan Election Law Regulations on Regular Off-Cycle and Odd-Year Elections (MCL 168.642)
• U.S. Census Bureau & FRED: State-Level Homeownership Tracking and Housing Vacancy Assessments
• U.S. Census Bureau & Veteran Studies: Comparative Voting Data and Registration Trends Among American Military Veterans

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